Tuesday, March 13, 2007

Ichimame's Blog: Study Meeting

From Ichimame's blog: Ichimame at Ryuanji's famous rock garden.

Yesterday, the mothers (of the okiya), geisha, and maiko of Kamishichiken took a tour of Kyoto's famous places. One by one, we made are way around Ginkakuji (the Silver Pavillion), Kiyomizu Dera (temple), Nijo-jo (castle), and Ryuanji (temple). Nijo Castle's "Nightengale Corridor" left quite an impression on me. When I walked on it, the floor sang "Chun chun," like a nightengale, and I was a little frightened. If I had to walk on that at night, I'd be so scared I wouldn't be able to walk well at all!

I was also impressed by Ryuanji's mysterious rock garden. There are 15 stones, but no matter how you count, you can only see 14. The first time I counted only 14, but when I tried again there were 15. I was begining to wonder if there really were 15 stones, so when I found them all I was very happy.

I had a lot of fun, so I hope we have another study meeting like this again.

2 comments:

Whoosh said...

I remember that floor in Nijo castle. It was specifically designed that way so the Emperor could hear anyone who was coming!

Anonymous said...

thanks for this translation! and the picture is lovely- it's amazing how much smaller the maiko look without the huge obi and hikizuri kimono!